|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: AUSTINMarch 17, 2018Amy VachonParise RossignolJulie BrosseauTanesha SuttonAustin, Texas Texas - 83, Maine - 54 AMY VACHON: Credit to Texas, that's a really, really good basketball team, and they shot the ball really well. And when they missed, they got their offensive rebounds there in the first quarter, first half, so credit to them. I hope they go really, really far in this tournament. A class staff and a class team. As far as our team, I'm really proud of them, proud of our season. Not the way we wanted to end it, but just I take these 13 kids any day, so really just proud of how hard they compete, and how much they grew this year. Q. Tanesha, what were those first seven minutes like? You couldn't get a rebound, grabbing everything and putting it back up. Was it just an overwhelming start there? TANESHA SUTTON: I guess we all had to get a feel for it. We weren't getting the rebounds. We just weren't really putting enough effort in the first half. Q. Why do you think that was? What was it about the start? Was it a big moment that the team maybe wasn't ready for? TANESHA SUTTON: I think we were ready for it. We just weren't really boxing out. Q. Parise, can you talk about being on the floor and as a Mainer and having so much support from home and people watching? PARISE ROSSIGNOL: Yeah, it's pretty special. Any player growing up, this is a stage you want to be able to play on. So to be able to represent my home state at this kind of game is really surreal. It's hard to put into words, but I'm very thankful. Q. Julie, I know you all have stepped out and played some Power Five conference teams. How did Texas match-up? Did they just maybe bring a little more athleticism and size than you guys have really seen? JULIE BROSSEAU: Yeah, they are very big. Like we're not used to play that type of athleticism in our conference. So that's why I think maybe it took us several minutes to adjust. Q. Can you talk about how this experience will prepare your younger players for the future? AMY VACHON: Yeah, absolutely, I hope it does. I think we learned a lot this year. We are very young. I mean, we start three sophomores, a freshman and a junior. We're going against a team in Texas who their starting point guards played over 100 and, I don't know, maybe 30 games, I may be wrong on that, but a lot of games. So the experience that we gained this year and hopefully today, I'm hoping will help us. Now we know what it feels like to be in the NCAA Tournament. These kids have never felt that way before. So it's a feeling that once you get, you want to keep and you want to have again. So the work in the off-season and those games in the preseason that we may have let slip by we got to really focus in and get those. Q. For the players, can you talk about being here and making it to the NCAA Tournament? TANESHA SUTTON: Every basketball player dreams to go D-1, go D-1, go to the championship, win a championship, go to the NCAA Tournament. This whole moment is so surreal. You can't really picture how your emotions, how it really feels until you get here. It's quite a feeling. I'm really proud of my team. JULIE BROSSEAU: Yeah, it's very amazing to play in the NCAA Tournament. It's like a dream. To play here at Texas was very nice, so that's a great experience for us. PARISE ROSSIGNOL: For me, it's just cool. I come from a school where I graduated with 24 other kids, so to be on this stage where my entire town's going to watch me on ESPN2 is pretty surreal. So, yeah, it's just amazing. Q. When they face a loss like that at the start, how do you regroup? What do you say? How do you try to fight that? AMY VACHON: I mean, our kids always fight, so I never question if they're going to compete or their effort or their energy. They give that all the time. I think we gave them some shots to Texas, but they hit some tough shots too. They just hit a lot of shots today. Credit to them. I mean, they're a great team. But, yeah, it's frustrating when you have a good possession and you played good defense and then they finally miss the shot and they get the offensive rebound and put it in. And that seemed to be the story of that first half. But I'm proud of us. We came back in the second half and played them relatively even. I know that they were subbing a lot and that sort of thing. But whether they're starter for subs or Texas, they're phenomenal basketball players. So for our kids to just keep fighting, we have to learn from this experience. Our kids never gave up. Q. Amy, Blanca had been effective all year, but not today. Was it they focused in on her more? AMY VACHON: I think it was maybe a little bit of both. But all teams all year focused in on her, so that wasn't any different. The level of athlete guarding her was a little bit different here, but she missed some shots she normally hit to be honest with you. But she kept fighting and she kept shooting. I wouldn't trade her for anyone. Q. For a Mainer who played in this tournament, can you talk about watching Parise and Maddy and Sierra on the floor and what that means to the state? AMY VACHON: Yeah, I know to the state and I know to the Mainers they love it. I know to see their own playing for the University and playing on a national stage. For Parise to be able to really earn a role and get good minutes this year has been great. Then Maddy, I told her, she's going to make me look bad because she went in in four minutes and scored five points. But I was happy for her. She played really hard. Yeah, all three of them are just so special to our team, so, yeah, I was really happy for them. Q. I know you want to win, obviously, but what was the best part of being here the last three days? AMY VACHON: Yeah, I just think for our kids it's something that they watch on television. For our University we haven't been here since 2004. So we talk a lot about it, and it's easy to talk about it. But until you experience it, you don't really know what to expect. For me, to see the kids just light up every time they got the patches on their uniform or they got Gatorade, I mean, just little things that a lot of people take for granted. So now they know it and they've gotten a taste of it. So for me I'm really hoping that it motivates them. We don't want to be a 15 seed. Being a 15 seed is really hard, and that's on us. We have to win the games in the preseason that we didn't win. We have to beat the Tulanes, we have to beat the Toledos, we have to beat the Miamis, we have to beat those teams. So our kids know that now, and they knew it, but now they see the results when you don't beat those teams. So, yeah, just the experience has been great, and hopefully we can learn from it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|